The semiconductor industry has experienced rapid growth due to continuous improvements in the integration density of a variety of electronic components (e.g., transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.). For the most part, this improvement in integration density has come from repeated reductions in minimum feature size, which allows more components to be integrated into a given area. As the demand for miniaturization, higher speed and greater bandwidth, as well as lower power consumption and latency has grown recently, there has grown a need for smaller and more creative packaging techniques of semiconductor dies.
As semiconductor device sizes have decreased, the density of devices has increased. Along with such increases in processing power, however, has also come an increase in the amount of heat generated by the package devices. As is to be expected, excessive amounts of heat present in the package devices can and typically does decrease device performance. A prolonged exposure to excessive temperatures may decrease the reliability and operating lifetime of the devices.